Preparations and Expectations

Oh the joys of pre-travel laundry!

Packing- my least favorite part of the trip (other than getting back and subsequently unpacking.) First the mountains of laundry, separated between clean and unclean. Determining what to bring based on weather forecasts, travel itineraries, and preconceived New Orleans culture. Next, figuring out how to fit the things I want to bring into the luggage I feel ready to carry with me. Usually being forced to sit on top of the suitcase, in order to zip it shut. It always gets stuck about half way without the weight of my body on top of the belongings.

Then preparing for the joys of New Orleans eating, shopping, and indulging... money. The preparations began by picking up over time hours at the nursing home. Sixty hour work weeks on Christmas break are necessary when budgeting for Christmas and a New Orleans trip. I work as a certified nursing assistant and working over time hours in a skilled long-term care facility is grueling work. Lifting, transfering, dressing, toileting, and feeding an entire hall of residents. Being accountable for the activities of daily living of eighteen to twenty-four residents over the age of eighty. The work is hard on the body, but rewarding for the mind and soul. The next step was to request money from all family members, as Christmas gifts. One sister even bought me a gift card to Cafe Du Monde, an eatery in the French Quarter, to spend on the trip.

Christmas gifts= New Orleans spending cash

Research for the trip was temporarily halted by the unsatisfactory preparation of getting over this week-long-upper-respiratory-nuisance-of-a-cold. Although previous research involved googling the hotel, surrounding cafes, and listed itinerary course trips. One of the course assignments before the train departs is to create an E-Travel Guide about the population of New Orleans, and my research for this assignment has grown my knowledge of the city's roots and the diversity of its people. I even borrowed a book from the professor about New Orleans and have been reading it, along with texts in the course material, to better understand the mysterious and progressive city of NOLA prior to arrival. The travel guide is a group project, created by the people you will room with in the hotel on the trip. My group had a coffee lunch date at Panera in North Peoria, Illinois, prior to the Christmas holidays, in order to assure the travel guide was well under way. During this meeting, we also mentally prepared for the train ride and discussed amongst ourselves what types of clothing, items, and cash amount we planned to bring. It was decided everyone should probably bring a pillow, blanket, headphones, and Benadryl, in order to sleep for the majority of the fifteen-hour train ride down to our destination. Our research also discovered that we should pack a bathing suit, as the hotel does have a lovely hot tub to relax our sore piggies after miles of site-seeing each day. The continental breakfast is apparently full of fresh hot foods, and things you can bring to-go, and the hotel room contains a mini-fridge. I can already imagine myself leaving breakfast with arms full of bananas, yogurt, peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches, and bottled waters, to stock the fridge for lunch and snack time. Arrangements for life away from life were not terribly complicated, as my copious amounts of jobs are hours that I choose and plan around school. I think my boyfriend was more problematic, as he claims he will miss my face.

Details of our hotel :))))


A link to my group's E-Travel Guide

No one wants to travel sick, so medications to resolve the infection were taken seriously.

I have a concise feeling of hesitation that lags slightly behind my joyous excitement to wander another city. Hesitant to explore a city without family; hesitant to travel with a class of people that I only know through school, on a trip where each activity is planned. I can imagine the trip will be full of new experiences and it will be more organized than any other trip I have taken. I will accomplish more in this city in a week than I do in most cities in a month. I think a jam-packed day of site-seeing will be enthralling, but simultaneously stressful. I am not worried about the writing, as I think I will enjoy sharing my travel experiences with others, but staying with classmates and trying to make new friends could pose greater difficulties.

I am earning a minor in humanities and this travel course to New Orleans is the final course I need to complete it. I decided to travel instead of taking a typical college course, because I believe far more knowledge is gained from experience and reflection than it is from classroom lecture. Being immersed in the culture of New Orleans and witnessing it firsthand will teach me far more about the city than reading about it for years. Writing is also a lifelong passion of mine, and I could not imagine a more enjoyable course than one where my only homework combines traveling and writing. Once I realized it was a trip I could afford, I was all in. I hope to become exposed to New Orleans culture, to the point of vulnerability to the art and lifestyle of NOLA natives. I hope to be changed by the bustle of the city and history found. Looking forward to the music and obvious life of the streets, the art galleries, the food, and the possibility of new camaraderie. Through all of this, I desire to learn the most about myself. To learn about myself as a traveler, a writer, an artist.